EFL Championship kicks off on August 4
2017/2018 EFL Championship Season starts on August 4 with two games (Sunderland v Derby and Nottingham Forest v Millwall). As the previous 13 championship in the same format, a total of 24 teams will enter the championships. They will pass a long path of about 9.5 months to reveal the three successful teams that will play in the 2017-18 Premier League season. Six new teams have entered the competition this season: Hull City, Middlesbrough, Sunderland have come down from the Premier League; they were relegated from the top flight and dropped down into the championship. Sheffield United, Bolton and Millwall all return to the championship after winning promotion from League One last season and will compete for the Premier League title. Aston Villa is the most popular team among the 24 participants. Aston Villa have also won the First Division Championship seven times, the FA Cup seven times, the Football League Cup five times, and the UEFA Super Cup once. Aston Villa are one of only five English clubs to be crowned champions of Europe, having won the 1981–82 European Cup. John Terry, former top-scoring defender of Chelsea and the new captain of the Birmingham team, will lead Aston Villa to new victories. Nottingham Forest have also shone on European playgrounds, keeping the best clubs in the continent ‘in terror.’The club, often referred to as Forest, have twice won the European Cups in those years. However, specialists are most of all interested in the performance of Hull City, given the fact that the team is coached by Leonid Slutsky, who previously managed PFC CSKA Moscow and the Russian national team. He was appointed head coach of Hull City in June, 2017, becoming the first Russian specialist to train a professional team of England. The 46-year-old coach believes that the Championship is one of the most challenging tournaments. “It's hard because you have 46 matches, a very long season," he said. "I have watched a lot of periods where one team wouldn't lose for seven matches and then for the next seven matches, they wouldn't win! I understand that it's difficult, but again, I have a very positive mood. We all together will work very hard. And we will have a good result," ESPN cited Slutsky as saying. The latest increasing bets, including odds on the Championship, show the the Championship become more and more popular year by year, especially given the fact that teams have football players from different countries and are trained by foreign specialists. Bet on the English League Championship fast and simple and become a participant of the championship, no matter where you live. And finally… Let us mention that the Championship starts with a new record. Wolverhampton Wanderers that came 15th in the previous season agreed to an astonishing £15.8 million ($20.3m, 17.9m euros) deal to sign midfielder Rúben Neves from Porto. This is the most expensive transfer during the fourteen years of the Championship.
